A member of the Roman nobility, Melania convinced her mother and husband to abandon their luxurious lifestyle and beome part of a Christian community of thirty families. Against family opposition, she sold her vast properties and gave the money to the needy while purchasing the freedom of eight thousand slaves.

Melania knew St. Augustine, founded double monasteries for her former slaves, and finally settled in Jerusalem close to St. Jerome. Melania was venerated in the east but almost entirely unknown in the west until her biography, based upon a ancient manuscript found in the Vatican, was published in 1905.